US announces Iraq uranium transfer

[ensho]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/07/20087813165610303.html


The United States secretly shipped hundreds of tons of uranium from Iraq to a customer in Canada on the request of Baghdad, a spokesman for the Pentagon has said.

About 550 metric tonnes of yellow cake uranium was moved to Baghdad's fortified Green Zone before being flown to a third country, where it was then shipped to Canada, Bryan Whitman said.

"The operation was completed over the weekend, on Saturday," Whitman said.

-snip-

Yellow cake uranium is not strong enough to power an electricity station or nuclear weapon until it is re-processed and enriched.

But Cameco, a company in Canada, is now going to process the yellow cake in a deal worth tens of millions of dollars.

An Iraqi government spokesman said Baghdad asked the US to help get rid of the uranium because of its potentially harmful effects.

The shipments cost the US about $70m, but the Iraqi government has pledged in principle to repay some of the costs, Whitman said.

-snip-

"Instead of selling it to Cameco, which is more or less a wholesaler, they could have instead had a bidding process that involved the utilities - and they probably would have gotten a better price for it."
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Note that this has been stored in the green zone all these years

go to Iraq come home dead, maimed or sick.

oh those neo cons, always doing business 24/7, making bucks, buying power.